Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Graphic NOVEL

In my opinion Alan Moore’s “Light of Thy Countenance” is a literary work because it had the reader analyze and think about the reading. There are people that may not see it as a literary work because it is a graphic novel. In this day and age, literature has expanded toward the internet and films. Unlike the “21 steps”, we do not literally see where the sitting is, but the graphics tell us more about the television being God. If it was only in words, the readers could still imagine it in their heads, but seeing exactly what Moore wants to show the readers gives more insight to the thoughts of Moore on television being God. Surprising is all I have to say about the graphic novel. The readers do not realize that the narrator is the television until the women the readers has thought the reader to be, changes into a bright light turning into a television set. Moore brings thoughts of television that readers already know. The readers do not think much of television—do not analyze until some one points out that it is a negative thing. Moore writes this continuously through out the graphic novel, to show that people are worshipping television as God. His use of diction, give people a bad feeling toward them, because Moore’s writing and visuals illustrates the people’s fascination in the television. The audience could interpret this graphic novel in many ways, which in my opinion, is what makes literature, since the person’s mind is thinking why Moore put the television as a God for his topic. Not only that, Moore also shows that the television is woman, with his personification and tone toward the ending of the graphic novel. “Light of Thy Countenance” is not as other literary works but it is one of them.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

two topics

1. post 9/11
Cayce’s experience with 9/11 shows indifference when she was there in New York and became fear when realizing her father went missing after he got out of the Mayflower. This indifference could mostly be the shock that has not processed the explosions of the plane that crashes in the world trade center. There were chaos on that day so would be traumatic seeing it on television causing Cayce’s fear of seeing news on television. Toward the world the social commentary is viewed in two ways, remorse for the dead and revenge for the dead. This changed the Americans view of America: it was not save anymore; though it never was. Americans became more suspicious of each other because they feared terrorism. Americans felt the first impact of invasion from outsiders besides pearl harbor. For Cayce, her mother sends her messages via e-mail about voice recorders that are supposably her dead father’s voice trying to communicate with them. Her mother believes that the dead till everything. Post-9/11 and Cayce’s father missing could be a key point in the plot, must read more to prove that.

2. depictions of gender
For Hubertus he has the cowboy hat and a smile that is like Tom Cruise with many teeth. Seeing Hubertus in Cayce’s point of view shows that Hubertus is handsome and a man, because of his demanding and imposing character. While for Cayce, she is genderless when she wears her CPUs. There are many characters that differ with Cayce’s appearance, and they are all more feminine and imposing. These depictions of gender are accurate because a person never knows what is behind a handsome smile or why William Gibson make all the women attractive besides Cayce. We could speculate that Cayce is just a normal lady while the readers compare her with the other women that are introduced for example, Damien’s new girlfriend, Hubertus’ travel agent, Keiko/Judy. It shows that the men are more dominant and that the women are more sexually attractive distracting the main point of the story. Also the different appearances in men is seen through Taki, Damien, and Boone Chu.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

What would Tobe think?

In William Faulkner’s short novel “A Rose for Emily”, the themes were seen through the events that Emily and the town’s people went through. Some themes were isolation (physically and mentally) and the reality of life. The themes would not change if for example the narrative went towards Tobe’s point of view. Tobe would still see that Emily is isolated and does not know the distinction between reality and fantasy. Though there would be big changes; like the towns people opinion, not know what Tobe is thinking so that is a big change, and the gossip that arise in town. There are changes that the audience will not notice like how Tobe sees Emily which is different from the town’s people. Also the hidden secrets in Emily’s house would be seen because Toby works there and sees everything.
            Isolation is the main theme in “A Rose for Emily”, because in any narrative the audience could tell that Emily is isolated and enclosed in her house. The other theme: reality of life also shows that the short story is intermixed with false identities and truths. For one, the villagers did not know that Homer was killed (dead) until after Emily’s funeral. This reality of life is exaggerated because of the gossip of the town’s people that the audience hears in the original narrative, but in Tobe’s narrative this would be limited. In Tobe’s narrative the audience would know about Homer’s outcome of going in Emily’s house. The audience will also be limited in the story itself, because in the original the audience gets the entire story by the town’s gossip, but in Tobe’s narrative the story itself would be limited too as he does not communicate.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Anti or Pro Technology

From the poem, All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace, Richard Brautigan’s tone seems to be sarcastic with the way he used the parenthesis after he writes “I like to think” (beginning of every stanza); not only that, though he is writing about “harmony” between nature and technology, that is not what he is really meaning. He’s anti-technology tone shows the message that during the 1960s technology was booming and he wrote his poem to show an exaggeration of the possible outcome of technology and nature.
In the last two lines of the first stanza, the simile makes a comparison of mammals and computers to “pure water touching clear sky”. To say the least, this, in reality, is not possible. By this, he is saying technology and nature could not coexist. During the 1960s, the cold war happened, so this poem could also be a message that he did not like that technology will overpower nature or his paranoid schizophrenia is acting up again.
Though it could be anti-technology, the parenthesis could also mean his positive opinion that technology should co-exist with nature. In the line “I like to think/ (it has to be!)/ of a cybernetic ecology…” (Lines 17-19) He implies that he would want the technology—machines—to do all the work for him. He ends his poem with “all watched over by machines of loving grace”, this has a double meaning that, yes, he does want technology, but the queer ending does not show that.
Throughout his poem he implies more toward the anti-technology tone because his familiar words of “brothers and sisters” and the last sentence sets out a statement that translated states: Do we want to be watched over by machines? This sounds queer and creepy. Though at first he says freedom he really means imprisonment, because in my opinion, the machinery has all control and we do not i.e. no freedom. Brautigan’s poem is confusing because the reader believes that he believes this but actually believes the other side or the other way around or both. Taking the poem in reality, the deer and the computer could not happen, since one, deer are afraid of human beings, second, then why would they be comfortable being next to a computer. Another thing, technology was barely booming, so all of this poem should not be seen during this time period where technology is most if not all in control of human beings. Rereading this poem, gives a new message: Brautigan is warning the human beings that technology will control the humans and nature.

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Casabianca By Felicia Dorothea Hemans

1.)Images
-“burning deck”
-“battle’s wreck”
-“beautiful and bright”
-“born to rule”
-“heroic blood”
-“proud”
-“flames rolled on”
-“booming shots”
-“brave despair”
-“wreathing fires made way”
-“banners in the sky”
-“a burst of thunder sound”
2.)
The image of the words “the flames rolled on”, gives the readers a sense of rush that the flames are approaching the boy, and that the boy needs to move on or he will die from the flames, which he did. The flames will not stop to see if the boy will escape, it is an unstoppable force that will eat away everything in its way. The image of the boy asking his father if his “task” is done, is ridiculous. The boy wants to survive, but his ignorance of his situation, made him die. As pointed out before, the boy should have move on; this could be seen in life too. For example, as cliché it may seem, survival of the fittest is seen in this poem. The boy was too innocent to be on the flaming ship, that he died.

Another image is seen in the boy. The description of the boy as “beautiful and bright”, “born to rule”, and “proud” could be interpreted that great people could be gone in an instant because of their greatness. This boy was born to rule but that was shot down when his loyalty ended his downfall. Loyalty in this poem is seen as a negative connotation. The flames surround the ship and the boy is yelling to his father if he could leave, shows that, though the boy is in grave danger, he respects his father and asks for permission. The poet, Hemans could have wrote this because she wanted the readers to feel pity and sadness for the boy, but underneath she wanted the readers to understand that loyalty and greatness has limits that could put one life in danger.

Connecting the two images, the poet has put the title, Casabianca, also known as the ship of the poem, as a show. Meaning that the boy and the ship are important but the boy’s ignorance or as the poet wrote “young, faithful heart”, was the “noblest thing that perished”. I do not agree with that, and Hemans wrote this knowing that the reader would have this intrepetation, and as stated above she was being sarcastic.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Why I called it "Pseudo Memory"

The title of my blog "pseudo memory" will be connected to my inability to remember things clearly. Not only do I forget stuff, but I will remember stuff incorrectly which goes with the word pseudo. The ironic part is that I took a class, as a child, that helped the person remember things better, but I think, for me, it only worsened. Not only that, I will write something down, but I will forget where I put it. That is why I carry my planner everywhere I go, not that I am that horrible at remembering stuff, it is just to make sure that I will not forget something important that I needed to do for the day. Even though it sounds that I am bad at remembering stuff, I really am not, I just need to keep myself up to date.

Another reason why it is called "pseudo memory", is because this blog would mostly be about posts of memories from classes, mostly English. Truthfully I was just playing with words to make my title sound interesting and relating to myself. Also, though pseudo means false, this blog in no way is false, it is all truth.

That is what "pseudo memory" represents.